1. Filed of the invention
The invention relates to a method and system for tracking a deposit, and more particularly, to a method and system for tracking the location and impact of the deposit through time and space. One embodiment of the present invention utilizes a network connection such as the Internet as the means to accomplish the tracking.
2. Description of Related Art
Many forms of deposits exist today. Among them are monetary deposits into financial institutions, including banks, the stock market, investment companies, etc., wherein the depositor retains ownership of the deposit or its value. Other examples of deposits include donations made to charitable or not-for-profit organizations. Still yet another form of a deposit is one of a donation of human organs, blood, bone marrow or other human tissue. And yet a further example of a deposit is one of time, namely, hours spent volunteering for a particular charity or not-for-profit organization. In the last three types of deposits the depositor usually transfers ownership or at least a portion of the control of the deposit.
In any of these deposit situations, the depositor transfers the deposit to a particular destination. Thereafter the deposit is used at the destination for any number of purposes, for example, to generate further money through any type of various investments, to assist in a needed medical operation, to aid in medical or other types of research, or to fulfill any of a hundred other particular objectives or needs of the recipient of the deposit (i.e., the “destination”). In some instances the original deposit (in whole or in part) may be forwarded to a further destination for use at that location or even split and sent to several further destinations.
In the first type of deposit given above, the destination, for example an investment company, may use the deposit to purchase stock in a company, thereby increasing that company's working capital. The increase in capital may lead to the generation of new jobs. If used in a research project, it also may lead to the development of inventions or products that greatly benefit society.
The second type of deposit the charitable donation of money, for example, may be used to buy food for an impoverished family. It could be used to buy clothing for abandoned babies. Or it may be used to pay the rent of a homeless shelter. A charitable donation may alternatively be in the form of property, stocks, real estate, clothing, food and shelter. These types of deposits may be directed at other not-for-profit organizations, such as entities involved in recycling programs or saving the rain forest.
The third type of deposit given above is another form of donation-type deposit. A human tissue deposit, for example, may be used directly in a medical procedure to save a person's life. It may also be used in research to develop new medical techniques, new medications or any other life enhancing procedure or product.
Finally, another example of a deposit noted above is a person volunteering his or her time in the form of labor. The time a person “deposits” with an organization, for example by making sandwiches for the homeless or mailing out donation requests, may result in feeding several families or raising a sum of money for the family. The money raised may in turn go to a home for run-away children.
One method of choosing where a deposit goes and allowing a donor to make a donation and have it earmarked for a specific purpose is known in a not-for-profit donation context. “The Yellowstone Wolf Tracker,” for example, is an organization that allows a donor to donate money to help save the wildlife in Yellowstone National Park. The donor is asked if he or she would like their donation to be used for any one of a list of particular purposes. If the donor selects a particular purpose offered, the money is earmarked and used for that purpose. An analogous financial deposit is a person earmarking a $500.00 deposit into one of a number of mutual fund accounts he or she maintains at a single financial institution.
Currently, methods and systems of deposit give the depositor only limited satisfaction in the deposit experience. The depositor may receive satisfaction from making the initial deposit, but the depositor has no way of tracking the impact the particular deposit has made in the world. All that the existing methods provide to the depositor is the knowledge of the initial destination of the deposit and, in the case of a method such as the Yellowstone Wolf Tracker, an ability to choose an initial destination from a number of choices. However, the depositor will never know any of the numerous subsequent or consequential benefits the deposit has made, for example the jobs that were created, the homeless sheltered or fed, the lives saved, or the safe haven provided to run-a ways.
In addition, third parties, who may include users, recipients, consumers, or beneficiaries of the deposit, directly or indirectly, have no way of knowing the identity of the depositor. For example, if a deposit resulted in the writing of a new medical reference manual, the person reading the manual has no way of knowing who donated funds to aid in the research and development of the manual.
Accordingly, a need exists for a method of tracking the impact and path of a deposit.